2010-06-27

Thanks to the humanity shown by the Jays, McDonald was home for the
final 11 days of his father’s life, alternately laughing and crying but
always celebrating a life well lived. McDonald recalled for the fans one
of the highlight conversations from that final week.
“One year I struck out only once in high school,” he said. “We had a
game where no umpires showed. They knew my dad was an ump so they
pulled him out of the crowd. On a two-strike pitch, he punched me out on
a curveball. We were talking in the hospital with a bunch of his umpire
friends. I said, ‘Dad, was that really a strike?’ He said, ‘Son, it was
a strike then and it’s a strike now.’”

This is a touchy subject for me. I lost my Dad when I was younger and debated on whether or not to add this wonderful story. In the end, this may end up being the story of the year and I am happy John had an opportunity to spend some time with his father before he passed away. To hit a homerun in his first at bat back in the line up after his death, considering he had 13 in 1911 plate appearances over his 12 season in the Major Leagues, well that is something very special.

Hours prior to the Blue Jays' contest against the Cardinals on Wednesday
night at Rogers Centre, an earthquake reading 5.5 on the Richter Scale
sent shock waves throughout the city of Toronto, spanning as far as
Boston, Chicago, and New York.
While an earthquake in Toronto is practically unheard of -- the last one
of this magnitude coming nearly 20 years ago -- this is the second time
this month the Blue Jays have experienced a series of tremors.

Earthquake in Ontario? Last year we had a bunch of tornadoes touch down and now this? Yikes.

BOB OWSNETT ASKS: I've always wondered what's involved in a
pitcher's SIMULATED game? Does it take place under the stands with a
strike zone target OR out on the diamond with a catcher? Are certain
situations set up? Do they pitch a full game or just a few innings? Do
they actually face batters, OR is it like throwing in the bullpen?
Please enlighten me on this subject.
BUCK: Good question Bob. We always talk about a pitcher throwing a
"simulated" game without much explanation. Generally this involves a
pitcher coming back from injury. As he builds up his arm strength and
stamina getting closer to major league action, the team will set up one
of these sim sessions. The idea is to simulate the action of pitching an
inning. He will face some of his own hitters, the catcher will call
pitches and the pitching coach will serve as the umpire. The inning will
consist of a regular sequence of pitches to a batter that has an
at-bat. If he gets a base hit he doesn't run the bases but the pitcher
will work out of the stretch. When three outs are recorded, the inning
is over, the pitcher takes his normal break between innings and resumes
the process. This simulated game is the last practice a pitcher has
before he makes a "rehab assignment" in the minors as a final tune up
before activation onto the major league roster. Of course I would always
prefer they simulate no-hitters!

Buck does his weekly Q & A. Usually pretty basic stuff but this was somewhat enlightening.

The Padres have acquired Kyle
Phillips from the Blue Jays in exchange for a player to be
named later, according to Jordan Bastian of
MLB.com (via Twitter). The move represents a homecoming for
Phillips, who was born in San
Diego.
The 26-year-old broke into the major leagues for the first
time last year, compiling five hits in 18 late-season plate appearances
for Toronto. Over the course of nine minor league seasons with three
different organizations, Phillips has a slash line of .265/.333/.381.
Though he came through the minors as a catcher, he has spent most of his
time this year at third base, hitting .258/.310/.333 in 71 plate
appearances for the Jays' Triple-A affiliate in Las Vegas.
Richard
Griffin of the Toronto Star points out (via Twitter)
that Phillips was stuck behind a slew of players on the Jays' catcher
and corner infield depth charts.

Paul Beeston’s November presidential visit to Halladay in Oldsmar,
Fla. in was the date when there was no turning back.
“I didn’t tell Paul I didn’t want to come back,” Halladay said. “I
said I didn’t want to sign long-term, keep my options open. I wanted a
chance to win ...”
Halladay catches himself and adds: “basically I guess by me saying
that, I was saying the same thing.”

A lot of interesting stuff came out about the Roy Halladay trade this week. I'm glad this ordeal is over with and wish him well on the rest of his season.

“When (former GM) J.P. (Ricciardi) was still with them, he had come
to us and said what about this extension, blah, blah, blah,” Brandy
explained. “They offered us a lot of money. Like we said, it’s not about
the money, it’s about putting ourselves in the position to attain the
goals we set for ourselves. We said at this time we can’t sign that
extension because we don’t know where the team’s going.”
The Jays sent an entourage to Tampa to meet with the Halladays at
their home in December of ’08 prior to the winter meetings. The option
for the best pitcher in baseball at the time was to sign an extension or
else the Jays would explore trade opportunities.

“At that point we had been asked for a list of teams,” she said.
“At spring training we said, ‘Look, if you’re going to (trade), do it
now. Don’t do it during the year because it’s a media frenzy for the
team, it’s a media frenzy for us. Either get it done or let us do our
job. When they didn’t, we thought we would be here all year. We never
went and said we want a trade. They came to us every time.”

Isn’t it nicer, now that the Blue Jays clubhouse is so loose?
That real serious guy, who never smiled or laughed, has left.
In the spring, Shaun Marcum said with Roy Halladay gone the Jays
clubhouse would be looser, the Jays would “have fun,” and Marcum would
“talk to young guys.”
It was a shot at the departed Halladay’s intensity. People within the
Jays organization have said the clubhouse was more relaxed once
Halladay left with his all-too-serious attitude.

This story got a few of my fellow Jays bloggers pretty pissed. What do you guys think?

2 comments:

What do I think? I'm beginning to think that you have the worlds largest collection of cowgirl pinup photos in the world.

Regarding the Halladay stuff-I definitely think there is some substance to it. Take away an intimidating presence and the younger guys are going to have an easier time being themselves. Obviously they all learned a lot from him too so it goes both ways.

Mattt,Heyo! Yeah you know when I started the round up I actually thought about it for a while.....I needed a way to post all the stories from the week that I didn't get to AND I was told by a buddy that I needed more "hot chicks". So I combined the two and voila the round up was born!But the real genius was picking a theme where I wasn't going to run out of material.....ever googled hot/sexy/smoking chick & cowboy hat?

With respect to Halladay, every interview I have ever seen on him has said he led by example. On a team, that generally means he would be the guy who goes out on the playing surface and preforms day in and day out. But in our sport, there are 4 days in which Roy did not pitch. What was the harm in approaching him on his off days and picking his brain a little? Marcum seemed to learn a few things about setting guys up.

I don't really know but this in fact an old team when compared with the others in MLB:http://scorecenter.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rosters?sort=average_age&order=trueThanks, as always, for the comments